Impressionism is probably my all-time favorite style of art, so of course I was extremely looking forward to seeing all the paintings by Monet, Renoir, Caillebotte, Seurat, etc. But I actually really enjoyed walking through the Modern Art section of the museum as well. For this blog post, I'll stick to just Impressionism, but you can expect to see another post soon about some of my favorite modern artists!
^^^Gustave Caillebotte's "Paris Street; Rainy Day"^^^
The geometric order, monumental figures, and dramatic perspective employed by Caillebotte seem to offer a vision quite different from the images most often associated with Impressionism—Monet’s light-dappled haystacks, indistinct landscapes, and nearly abstract lily ponds. What links Caillebotte to the Impressionist artists with whom he exhibited—Monet, Renoir, Degas, and others—is not his style so much as his desire to capture momentary experience and fleeting vision in works that explore themes of class, identity, urbanity, and modernity.
^^^ Claude Monet's "Arrival of the Normandy Train"^^^
In this painting, Monet captures the rumble of trains surging forward and the torrents of smoke winding through the vast engine shed of Gare Saint-Lazare. The brushwork, colors, details, and point of view are clearly in the Impressionist style, and I love Monet's use of pure bright colors applied with short, quick brushstrokes, to capture the effects of light. To observe the world directly was of utmost importance to Monet and the other Impressionist artists, and here he depicts the modern, industrial setting of Gare Saint-Lazare beautifully!
^^^Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Woman at the Piano"^^^
Pierre Auguste Renoir was one of the most dedicated figure painters among the Impressionists. Like Camille Corot, Mary Cassatt, and others, Renoir often painted women in domestic interiors, either daydreaming or reading. In this painting, he depicted for the first time a model playing the piano, a subject to which he would frequently return. The soft brushstrokes and colors make this painting quite lovely, and it perfectly exemplifies Impressionistic figure painting.
^^^Claude Monet's "Bordighera"^^^
Early in 1884, Claude Monet traveled to Bordighera, a town on the Italian Riviera, close to the border between Italy and France, for a working visit of three weeks that turned into nearly three months (no surprise there!). In a letter to the sculptor Auguste Rodin describing his efforts to translate into paint the brilliant Mediterranean light, Monet declared he was "fencing, wrestling, with the sun." In other letters, he complained of the impossibility of finding a motif due to the abundant vegetation. I honestly don't know what Monet was complaining about, because he seems to have a found a stunning color scheme in this sun-drenched composition painted from a hilltop vantage point.
^^^Claude Monet's "Water Lily Pond"^^^
In 1893, Claude Monet bought property in Giverny, and began transforming the marshy ground behind his home into a pond, on the narrow end of which he built a Japanese-style wood bridge. Adding both exotic and domestic plants, including his famous water lilies, the artist created the garden that would be one of his principal subjects for the rest of his life. Of course, we have all heard of Monet's Waterlilies collection, and his Water Lily Pond does not disappoint! I love the way he depicts the mingling lilies with reflections of other vegetation on the pool’s surface.
^^^Georges Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte"^^^
Seurat was only 26 when he first showed this painting at the eighth annual and final Impressionist exhibition in 1886. I'm actually surprised that I like this painting so much, because in scale, technique, and composition it appeared as a scandalous eruption within Impressionism. It immediately changed the course of vanguard painting, initiating a new direction that was baptized "Neoimpressionism." The sad part in this artist's story is the fact that Seurat died at age 31. He created other ambitious canvases, but La Grande Jatte has remained his definitive achievement.
^^^Camille Pissarro's "The Place du Havre"^^^
Camille Pissarro did have a period of experimentation with the Neoimpressionist style developed by Georges Seurat, but he soon returned to the loose, multi-directional brushstrokes that he had use in his earlier works. He enjoyed painting the modern city, and this bustling scene, alive with the movement of traffic and pedestrians, was the view from his window at the Hôtel Garnier in Paris. Another interesting note is that the building at the left edge of the canvas is the Gare Saint-Lazare, the interior of which Claude Monet painted, and you can see a picture of that painting earlier in this post!
Camille Pissarro did have a period of experimentation with the Neoimpressionist style developed by Georges Seurat, but he soon returned to the loose, multi-directional brushstrokes that he had use in his earlier works. He enjoyed painting the modern city, and this bustling scene, alive with the movement of traffic and pedestrians, was the view from his window at the Hôtel Garnier in Paris. Another interesting note is that the building at the left edge of the canvas is the Gare Saint-Lazare, the interior of which Claude Monet painted, and you can see a picture of that painting earlier in this post!
^^^Paul Cézanne's "The Basket of Apples"^^^
Paul Cézanne was an artists who recognized he did not have to represent real objects in real space. Because of this, his painting The Basket of Apples contains one of his signature tilted tables, an impossible rectangle with no right angles. On it, a basket of apples pitches forward from a slablike base, seemingly balanced by the bottle and the tablecloth’s thick, sculptural folds. The heavy modeling, solid brushstrokes, and glowing colors give the composition a density and dynamism that a more realistic still life could never possess. (Can you believe I'm saying this??? The detail-oriented-still-life-lover!) It is largely due to this painting, one of his rare signed works, that Cézanne is now hailed as the father of modern painting.
^^^Vincent van Gogh's "The Bedroom"^^^
This painting and it's artist both have very interesting stories. Vincent van Gogh's three versions of this composition are the only record he made of the interior of the Yellow House, where he lived while he was in the south of France. The house embodied the artist's dream of a "Studio of the South," a community of like-minded artists working in harmony to create art for the future. Unfortunately, that dream never became a reality. The house's first guest fled after van Gogh's self-mutilation, and his increasingly disturbing habits soon afterwards had him placed in an asylum, where the second version of this painting was made, about a year after the first. The moral of this story? Even if you are a crazy lunatic, there's still hope that you can become a famous artist! =P
Paul Cézanne was an artists who recognized he did not have to represent real objects in real space. Because of this, his painting The Basket of Apples contains one of his signature tilted tables, an impossible rectangle with no right angles. On it, a basket of apples pitches forward from a slablike base, seemingly balanced by the bottle and the tablecloth’s thick, sculptural folds. The heavy modeling, solid brushstrokes, and glowing colors give the composition a density and dynamism that a more realistic still life could never possess. (Can you believe I'm saying this??? The detail-oriented-still-life-lover!) It is largely due to this painting, one of his rare signed works, that Cézanne is now hailed as the father of modern painting.
^^^Vincent van Gogh's "The Bedroom"^^^
This painting and it's artist both have very interesting stories. Vincent van Gogh's three versions of this composition are the only record he made of the interior of the Yellow House, where he lived while he was in the south of France. The house embodied the artist's dream of a "Studio of the South," a community of like-minded artists working in harmony to create art for the future. Unfortunately, that dream never became a reality. The house's first guest fled after van Gogh's self-mutilation, and his increasingly disturbing habits soon afterwards had him placed in an asylum, where the second version of this painting was made, about a year after the first. The moral of this story? Even if you are a crazy lunatic, there's still hope that you can become a famous artist! =P
So, there is your mini Art History lesson for the day! Pictures really can't do these paintings justice though, so you will just have to go and see them for yourself!
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